Xcode10 - dyld: Library not loaded for pod installed in framework

I too was facing the same problem. All you need to do is set the third party frameworks you are using for e.g:- PodA as Optional instead of Required under Link binary with Libraries in build Phases section. That's all. try it again and it will run as expected.

Note:- You need to add the PodA in the app in which you are using your framework. There is no other way except create a static framework consisting your PodA and use this newly created static framework inside your dynamic framework.

The reason the build succeeds is that the PodA framework is visible to the FrameworkA during compilation (it can link to it), but when the application launches, then it tries to find and load the dynamic framework PodA required by the FrameworkA, and it looks like the PodA is not embedded in the MainAppTarget, so the app crashes with the error message you saw.

To fix this, make sure that the PodA framework is embedded in the MainAppTarget. Specifically, you need to make sure that the final app bundle contains the PodA.framework in the Framewokrs subfolder. Usually cocoapods copies the frameworks automatically.

Check that the Build Phases for the MainAppTarget contains cocoapods's [CP] Embed Pods Frameworks and that the scripts' input files contain the path to the PodA framework. Something like this (example shows Alamofire pod):

I have set up a project with the details you posted, but it looks to me that cocoapods handles this case automatically in the created workspace setup (you can take a look at my demo project here: https://github.com/DmitryBespalov/StackOverflowPodFramework). If your setup is different, please let me know of the details and I can help you further with that.

From your error message, there are a few things that should be checked.

dyld: Library not loaded: @rpath/PodA.framework/PodA
  Referenced from: .../Build/Products/Development-iphonesimulator/FrameworkA.framework/FrameworkA
  Reason: image not found

The first thing that seems odd is that the path for the framework that is being loaded (FrameworkA.framework) is not embedded inside an app. Check the "General" tab of the MainAppTarget and make sure the framework is appearing in the "Embedded Binaries" and "Linked Frameworks and Libraries" sections.

Second, @rpath is a shorthand for the runpath search path list, which tells dyld where to look for needed libraries.

Here's an example project on Github with a main app that uses one Cocoapod, and a dynamic framework that the main app depends on that uses a different Cocoapod: https://github.com/dtweston/FrameworkPodTest

Build settings that you should check on all of the targets that are involved (including the framework targets built by the Pods project):

• Runpath Search Paths (LD_RUNPATH_SEARCH_PATHS)
  • In the example project, these are determined by the cocoapod, but each one is set to $(inherited) @executable_path/Frameworks @loader_path/Frameworks
• Dynamic Library Install Name (LD_DYLIB_INSTALL_NAME)
  • In the example project, this is unchanged from the default $(DYLIB_INSTALL_NAME_BASE:standardizepath)/$(EXECUTABLE_PATH)
• Dynamic Library Install Name Base (DYLIB_INSTALL_NAME_BASE)
  • In the example project, set to @rpath (again determined by the Cocoapod)

Here's a screenshot of the built application bundle showing how it's laid out:

You can use otool to get information about how the application is assembled by xcodebuild.

Here's the main app binary:

otool -L FrameworkPodTest
FrameworkPodTest:
    @rpath/KeychainSwift.framework/KeychainSwift (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
    @rpath/Lottie.framework/Lottie (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/UIKit (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 61000.0.0)
    @rpath/Framework.framework/Framework (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Foundation (compatibility version 300.0.0, current version 1560.10.0)
    /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 228.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1252.200.5)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/CoreGraphics (compatibility version 64.0.0, current version 1245.9.2)
...

And the framework binary:

otool -L Frameworks/Framework.framework/Framework
Frameworks/Framework.framework/Framework:
    @rpath/Framework.framework/Framework (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
    @rpath/KeychainSwift.framework/KeychainSwift (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Foundation (compatibility version 300.0.0, current version 1560.10.0)
    /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 228.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1252.200.5)
    @rpath/libswiftCore.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1000.11.42)
    @rpath/libswiftCoreFoundation.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1000.11.42)
...